Province commits $81 million to restoring flood-ravaged parks

Tourism, Parks and Recreation Minister Richard Starke looks at the damage in Fish Creek Provincial Park caused by the June floods.Leah Hennel

Tourism, Parks and Recreation Minister Richard Starke looks at the damage in Fish Creek Provincial Park caused by the June floods.Leah Hennel

A partially buried day-use area near Highwood Pass in Kananaskis Country on Thursday.Gavin Young Gavin Young
/ Calgary Herald

Tourism, Parks and Recreation Minister Richard Starke looks at the damage in Fish Creek Provincial Park caused by the June floods.Leah Hennel

The area in front of the visitor centre in Peter Lougheed Park normally had a meadow in front of it, but it was a lake after the June floods. Photo by Gavin Young/Calgary HeraldGavin Young Gavin Young
/ Calgary Herald

The Chester Lake parking lot is now full of gravel but the toilet building remained standing after heavy flood damage throughout Kananaskis Country.Gavin Young Gavin Young
/ Calgary Herald

A pathway is still closed in Fish Creek Provincial Park due to damage caused by the June floods.Leah Hennel

Tourism, Parks and Recreation Minister Richard Starke looks at the damage in Fish Creek Provincial Park caused by the June floods.Leah Hennel

Lloyd Osborne walks his dogs along a pathway in Fish Creek Provincial Park on Thursday.Leah Hennel

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In Kananaskis Country, highways and trails were washed out, campgrounds were destroyed and the Peter Lougheed Visitor Centre was flooded. Calgary’s Fish Creek Provincial Park lost pathways and memorial benches.

Other parks in southern Alberta also suffered damage in the June flood.

In total, about 170 kilometres of pathways and recreation trails were destroyed, and more than 60 picnic areas and 50 campgrounds were damaged.

Now the Alberta government is dedicating $81 million over the next four years to restore provincial parks.

“The dollar figure is based on the best assessment that our staff were able to provide in terms of the degree of the damage and what it will take to rebuild,” said Richard Starke, minister of tourism, parks and recreation. “In some cases, that is just not an option.

“In some cases, a group day-use area or a campground will be relocated to higher ground or to an area that is less susceptible to flooding damage. We’ve got trails where the trail is gone, the trail is absolutely gone.”

Much of the funding, approximately $60 million, will go toward Kananaskis Country — where the damage was widespread.

“This will be used to bring the trails back to, maybe not what they were but certainly back to what Albertans and visitors around the world can expect from the provincial park,” said Dan DeSantis, chairman of the Kananaskis Improvement District.

It will include repairs to trails, campgrounds, bridges and the Peter Lougheed Visitor Centre, which has a damaged foundation.

No decision has been made on how to deal with the Kananaskis Country Golf Course, a government-owned but privately operated course that was shut down after flood waters cut channels two metres deep and six metres wide in some areas.

“It is a very complex issue that has a lot of moving parts,” suggested Starke, noting it’s not included in Wednesday’s funding.

Of the money, about $16 million will go toward Fish Creek Provincial Park in Calgary.

Nic DeGama-Blanchet, executive director of the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society, said it will help repair pathways along the Bow River.

“It will be nice to see those put back as best we can,” he said. “There’s some areas that we just can’t make them like they used to be. Nature has changed its mind, the river is different, the riverbank is different.

“The main thing is the connectivity of the pathways, putting those back together so folks can go from their A to their B.”

DeGama-Blanchet said they’ll also use some of the money to replace the 11 dedication benches damaged or washed away during the floods.

“We know, as part of this program, those benches are going to be put back,” he said.

The remaining $6 million will go to Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park, the Oldman Dam Provincial Recreation Area and other areas across southern Alberta.

With the help of volunteers, restoration efforts are already underway and work will continue throughout the fall and winter. The major work will start next year, but it could take up to four years to finish.

With files from Rick Donkers, Calgary Herald

cderworiz@calgaryherald.com

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